THE ORCHESTRA PiocvonianeyTHE ORCHESTRA Theatrical beginnings lated revolution was going on. In the next pages we may be surprised to find that a primary element in this historical drama was the at ofthe opera. Bue ma- ny innovations have occurred on the stages of theatres. Opera, born in Italy Just before 1600, was to be the most ad~ vanced form of eatly Baroque music. It continually sought new ways of por traying every emotion from sweet love to bitter separation, every perception autumn. The stage swarmed with shep- herds and damsels, warriors and vil Iains, deities and monsters. Musicians had to keep in smooth step with these novelties of theatrical imagination Monteverdi goes underground ‘An interesting example of how soon the resources of orchestras were exploited, namely in 1607, is Claudio Monteverdi’s ‘opera Orfe. Monteverdi was a pioneer in the conscious use of varying tonal cha- ractetistis for enlivening. different states of emotion. ‘The operas brighter parts are dominated by “pastoral” instruments such as recorders and high-sounding strings. Once Orpheus reaches the un- derworld, its atmosphere is darkened with trombones, organ and low gambas (although trombones in this context were not his own idea). Monteverdis orchestra consisted of no fewer than thirty bowed and wind in- steuments ~ about the same number of each, bur including several types. In ad- dition, there were a harp, lutes, organs and harpsichords, so as to vary the im poncain shonoighe bas. Ie wu, how ever, be misleading to consider this group of more than forty instruments 2s an orchestra in the later sense, Monteverdi used them not collectively but asa “poo!” fiom which he chose combinations for different purposes. Possibly, too, the musicians were fewer in number and switched between instruments thae were not needed simultaneously. Emotional music Orfeo stands at the frontier between the Renaissance’s colourful ensembles and the Baroque’s more sharply contoured orchestras. Until his death in 1643, Monteverdi remained the central figure | of the opera, producing a series of pivo tal works. He experimented ceaselesly with means of transferring the expres sions in a text to music, and of streng-1oin onder to evoke unrest thening them by the power of s Y communicate emotions. His harmony ‘was, for its time, tich in dissonances he complemented it with a Monteverdi’ role in the history of the orchestra was not (0 One of the fess composers whe naed music deliberately to create atmorpheres was Claudio Monteverdi (1576-1613) In his début opera “Orfeo”, for exemple, trombones and gambas added sombre ccoduce new instruments, Fle employed | those available, both new and old. Yer | he did so with an unusual awareness of conality--and with unprecedented ways of handling the strings, wiz na g devices was far remoleand pizsicara He ahead of his contemporaries in the use 0 strengthen expre sion. His manner of composition sand his imaginative command of the or chestta were influential for 150 years, until the age of Mozart Opera for the masses Duringjits fis few decades, opera was in- tended for the inner circles of royalty. But already in the 1630s, while Monteverdi wvas still active, che first musical theatres fora paying p and Ve ublic were opened in Kome They were no small affair | the one in Rome is sid to have seated 3,000! Their stage equipment was a me- chanical marvel, able to achieve dramatic tuitackes and change scenery before the amazed eyes of audiences. Spectacular vi sual ingredients became fashionable. The scenery often had an extreme central per spective, giving the stage an impression of vast depth, Success was so great that Venice, to wards the end of that century, had ff tccn opera houses. The enthusiasts came increasingly from the middle class, so thac creators of opera began co cultivate more earthy subjects, preferably includ: ing comedy and burlesque. These provi desl enjoyable alternatives to the formal, often tragic tales of kings, prophets, generals and other distant figures, as BE yt parses ica | themes taken from ancient mythologyThe THE ORCHESTRA orchestra finds its forms Leer social background, the art of opera be- came popular entertainment and spread across Europe during the late seven- teenth century. The royal courts had already imitated the Italian prototypes; now it was the bourgeoisie’s turn. Paris and London acquired public opera theatres in 1671, Hamburg in 1678, and Dresden in 1686, Both national works and a variety of imported Italian products were per- formed everywhere. International ex- change contributed to a growing need for common features in the orchestra’, constitution. With Monteverdi, orches- tras were put together almost hap- hazardly, in particular at the beginning when they still smacked of the Renaissance. But when an opera was «0 be performed beyond its place of origin, the creator could no longer easily super- vise or participate in its performance. There were no agreements about ‘copyright in chose days. A work of are ‘was treated as public property. Anyone could alter the action, music, or orches- tral arrangement to suit a new stage or The viola da gamba an audience with different castes. Large ‘opera houses had many kinds of instru- ments, but not even their scletions we- re always identical. From the fifteen ‘musical theatres in Venice alone, we can understand that minor cities possessed plency of them, yet with far smaller re- soneces. The composers were forced to accept adaptations which, in our view, wreck the music— such as cells instead of trombones, or violins substicuting for toumpers Until the end of the eighteenth cen- tury, what primarily counted was the ‘musical material, not the conal cloth- jing. Music was regarded not as art, but as handicraft. Nor did anyone think thae ie would asc forever. § wooden shoes were judged by their uti lity, and music was similarly expected 10 ous and| Public opera theatres arose during the late seventeenth century, as in Paris, Dresden and London. Coven dem was inaugurated in 1732 in London, Burned and re 3 Burned and rebuite several times (most recently in r858), it ill serves as a national opers stage function well in a given situation. Its creators must have realized, at all ‘vents. thar their works were more for- tunate to be performed “wrongly” in ‘many places than “rightly” in one. Violins in the centre The string section had been prominent in orchestras since the beginning of the Baroque. Ar first the viol instruments alternated with newer violin instru- ments — violins, violas, cellos ~ and sometimes played together with them, as in Monteverdis Orfeo. Gradually the violin instruments became better and more widespread, and were fully adopted by most orchestra. Their high Gqualty and fledbiliey exeed enormous appeal, strengthening their stacus asthe core of the orchestra Practical factors were also impor tant. Adaptation of works, mentioned above, was never entirely avoidable, but it could be limited. By using only the instruments to which everyone had ac cess, far-reaching changes became less necessary when an opera appeared on 2 new stage. Thus. much of the period's theatre music was designed solely for